St. Paul's Church

So it has been about a year since we multiplied St Paul’s @
Spoons and we thought you might like to know how we’re getting on! Last year we
decided to multiply Spoons to run on a Tuesday AND a Wednesday as the group had
grown to the point where people struggled to hear each other across the table
and there was no more room for growth.

I have a terrible confession to make – I didn’t really like
the idea of this multiplication. I didn’t particularly see the need for it (as
I had been away for a couple of months at Uni) and didn’t understand how we’d
continue to run with such small groups.

A Wednesday night started with 4 of us but this very quickly
went to 3 then back up to 4, we had one or two join us for a season but nobody
seemed to stick. That was really difficult and sort of reinforced my belief
that this was needless – “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. However, as the
leaders of the Wednesday group, Jack and I decided to spend a day fasting and
praying together for Wednesday Spoons, asking Jesus what he wanted us to do to
grow that group and his answer was simple – Alpha. So we started an Alpha
course in Spoons on a Wednesday night and for the first few weeks there was the
usual four but no one else and then we had one new person join, and then
another and another… As I write this it’s Thursday and there were 7 of us at
Spoons last night (and that’s with one of our regulars missing).

I could never have imagined that Spoons would be thriving
over 2 nights in such a way but it is beautiful to see! It is even getting to
the point now where we’re asking what’s next? What can we do to help spiritually
nourish the people that are continuing to join us? How can we give room for
more growth and more scope for all sorts of different people to join us?

So please do pray for us as we enter this new
season of asking what is next for St Paul’s @ Spoons and

in general the young
adults work at St Paul’s? Please pray for me as I listen to Jesus and try to
take the initial obedient steps that he directs.

The greatest
position of strength for a Christianis on your knees. We need to pray, because
the power that only comes through power is the power to change the world.
Prayer is powerful.

The
Gospels speak of moments where Jesus leaves the crowds, goes to pray and takes
only 3 of the disciples with him (Peter, James & John). One moment he does
this is the transfiguration – he chooses to share this incredible moment where
the voice of God reveals Jesus’ true identity (“This is my Son”) with only 3 of
his friends. Another example is when Jesus goes to Gethsemane on the night he
was betrayed. Again, Jesus takes Peter, James & John with him and asks them
to pray for him as he prays – knowing the time had come for him to sacrifice
himself. Jesus chose to share the most intimate, vulnerable, personal moments
of his time on earth with just a few people.

We
know that prayer is a good idea – if it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough
for me! Jesus says “Ask and it will be given to you;seek and you will find; knock and the
door will be opened to you.8 For everyone who
asks receives; the one who seeks finds;and to the one who knocks, the door
will be opened.” (Matt. 7:7-8) If we want Jesus to make a way in this world for
us, those we love or are concerned for we need to ask…and KEEP ON ASKING.

Sometimes it can be hard for us to share the things that
we feel we need prayer for, this is personal and vulnerable (or perhaps we just
feel like our needs are minuscule in comparison to the needs of others). Jesus
said:“Again, truly I tell you that if two
of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for themby my Father in heaven.20 For where two or
three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matt. 18:19-20)

When I moved away to college Jesus used this time to
confront some things in my life. I used to be a bit irresponsible when it came
to going on nights out with my friends – I would drink more to make myself feel
comfortable. When I went to college Jesus showed me that the reason I did this
was because I had quite a low opinion of myself so felt self-conscious and even
sometimes worthless. This was a very difficult thing to confront and so I spoke
to two of my closest friends in college. We committed to praying together once
a week – we would praise God, pray for our community and finally pray for each
other. Within this time we would ask God to give us messages and pictures for
each other to crush the lies of the devil that we had believed in the past. It
was an incredible time where we met with Jesus in a very personal way and got
to encourage each other at the same time.

So why wait? Who could you commit to praying with rather
than just for? Let’s make a change to our world – it starts here.

This week we’re thinking about the St Paul’s Way daily habit
of doing Good Deeds. Sports minister bob was blessed by someone’s good deed not
long ago so we thought we’d ask him to tell us all about it!

“Last summer OneTwo
sports ministries partnered with Wirral YFC and the 4, 6, 8 Project, Toxteth to
run its first official Sports Holiday. The holiday was based in the Wirral at a
location called ‘Barnstondale Activity Centre’.
The aim of the holiday was to attract as many young people around the
Merseyside area to a sports specific holiday where they would get the
opportunity to meet with Jesus daily. Barnstondale itself is an amazing
facility, it had everything we needed from an outdoor sports field, and indoor
sports hall, a multi-use games area, climbing wall, archery range, an outdoor
BBQ area and a stunning log cabin for some much needed rest.

As you can imagine such a facility is pretty expensive. In
fact it worked out at around £107 per child for 3 nights. This in itself didn’t
seem too unreasonable for what Barnstondale could offer (as all the activities
and food where included in the price). However, we felt the price per child may
mean that majority of the children we (OneTwo sports, Wirral YFC and the 4,6, 8
project Toxteth) worked with would not be able afford the holiday. Amazingly we
were given a grant of £1,500 towards the holiday, which meant we could charge
£63 per child for the three nights – an amazing answer to prayer.

This year we wanted to use the facility again for the same
sports camp – however we were not able to apply for the same grant of £1,500,
meaning that that the holiday looked like it wouldn’t happen. After much prayer
and consideration of what to do next, Barnstondale got back in touch with us
and offered us the facility for the same price per child, fantastic news! We
have been so blessed by the team who run Barnstondale (affectively giving us
£1500 off the price), and just feel that this is where God wants us to be. Both
myself and the team really excited to see lives transformed through the medium
of sports ministry.”

Hopefully most of you will know that we are starting the
Alpha course on Wednesday nights 7.30-9.30 (beginning this Wednesday 18th
for 10 weeks). The alpha course is for anyone who is wondering if there is more
to life than this, what all this God stuff is about or what it means to be a
Christian. It is a time where we can join together for a meal, think about
life, the world around us and faith and chat to lots of different people.

Alpha’s national campaign at the minute sees Bear Grylls
speak of how putting his faith in Jesus has been his greatest adventure and it
really is a wonderful adventure! Many of the people of St Paul’s came to
believe and trust in Jesus through attending an alpha course and they all say
it was a brilliant experience. In Long Loaf this week Billy shared about how
alpha didn’t just give him a better understanding of who God is but also
brought him lasting friendships with the people that he attended the course
with – “the social part was just as important”.

So, maybe Alpha sounds like what you’re looking for? Great!
Sign up on the sheet at the back of church or let Greg or Kirsty know that
you’re planning on coming.

Maybe you’ve had a faith in Jesus for years, great! So who
could you invite to come to Alpha? Who is the one person that Jesus is asking
you to share your faith with? Invite them! Take as many flyers as you like from
the back and invite as many people as possible.

We want to see people join this amazing adventure: a life
with Jesus Christ.

Hopefully, by now you are aware of the fact that we are
having a Christmas meal, here at St Paul’s on Christmas Day at 12pm! This is a free
meal (although donations are welcome) which is open to…ANYONE AND EVERYONE!

We want to encourage as many of you as possible to come down
and get involved… Christmas is a wonderful time when we celebrate the birth of
Jesus! We celebrate the willingness of God to come down to Earth in human form
and be “God with us”. It has also become a great time to gather and celebrate
with family and friends!

Not have many family members around here and want to be able
to enjoy Christmas dinner with good company? This is for you!

Not able to afford (with either money or time) to
purchase and cook a Christmas meal for yourselves and your family? This is for you!

Plenty of family, able to afford it but would like to
celebrate this incredible time with your wider church family? This is for you!

In Matthew, Jesus said that those he judges to be blessed by
His Father will be those who fed him when he was hungry and gave him a drink
when he was thirsty and this is a great opportunity for us as a church to do
just that! Of course, many of us have our own Christmas routine which is great
and you can be involved even if you can’t come along on the day. Perhaps you
would like to help financially towards the meal? Or assist Greg with some of
the preparation on Christmas Eve? Or by
simply spreading the word (especially to those in need this Christmas) that this
is happening.

For those who would like to come and eat with us on
Christmas Day please tell Kirsty today or call Felicity in the office and put
your name down. If you would like to help with either the preparation of the
meal or support us in funding this event, please let Greg know.

As you
know, we are now in the season of Advent, a time of preparation and waiting for
Jesus to come again as the King who reigns in glory. Alongside that we are in a
time of preparation and waiting for the appointment of our new vicar. Due to
both of these, we have entered into a time of fasting as a church.

Some of us
are fasting food, cake, alcohol or social media but the important thing isn’t
necessarily about what we choose to give up but what we take up instead. Greg
preached a couple of weeks ago about fasting and told us how it means
“fastening onto” – fasting is a time for us to fasten onto Jesus.

Fasting is
not about punishing ourselves unnecessarily or about trying to convince God to
do what we want. It is about denying ourselves the things we want and using the
moments when we think about or long for those things to pray and seek the Lord
and His will instead. When we fast we put our trust and reliance more in the
one who is our sustenance – Jesus says in John 6:35 “I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me will never be
thirsty.”

I’ve heard
it said that it’s when we reach the end of ourselves that we hear what Jesus is
trying to say to us the clearest. How incredible would it be if we could use
our desires for cake, Facebook or wine to hear the energising wisdom and truth
of our Lord? So the next time that craving calls, call to Jesus – pray for
yourself, pray for St Paul’s, for Widnes, for our world. Praise God for all he
provides and seek his will for your life and the life of our church (especially
our new vicar).

Many of you have probably heard of Extended Worship
Gathering (or EWG for short), but what actually is it? Well, the clue is in the
name…

Essentially EWG is a monthly Sunday service at 6.30pm which
is a little longer. EWG was originally started because those who had attended
the New Wine conference in August desired a similar experience back here in
Widnes. As such, there is a longer time of sung worship, an often interactive talk
and then there is a longer time reserved at the end of the service to respond
to what is said in prayer by asking God to speak to us. We often ask for the
Holy Spirit to give us gifts of prophecy or healing in this time and we like to
leave enough space to allow God to do what he wants to do.

At the moment in EWG we are going through a series on the
sayings of Jesus in John’s Gospel where Jesus tells us about who he is: “I am…”
So far we have explored how Jesus is the bread of life and the light of the
world and tonight we will be exploring how Jesus is the gate or the door.

Everyone is welcome so please do come along… We believe that
Jesus is alive and wants to do something here in Widnes and in our hearts and
lives and we believe this is a pretty good place to start.

The next habit in the St Paul’s Way for us to look at is one
of our monthly habits: “Visit Someone”.

This is as simple as it sounds – we as a church want to aim
to visit someone from church once a month. Perhaps we are most likely to do
this when someone is unwell – we want to hear Jesus say: “I was sick, and you
visited Me;”
(Matt 25:36). However, this is a great habit, not only in terms of
visiting those who may be struggling to leave the house and so missing the
company and fellowship of church, but also to develop the connections and
relationships we have with each other across all of our balloons.

Visiting is a great
way to get to know each other better. One of my favourite parts of my placement
last summer was visiting some of you and finding out the part that St Paul’s
plays in your lives. I loved hearing stories of family, friends and holidays,
old stories about St Paul’s and Widnes and just generally having a cup of tea
and a chat with so many of you. (Thanks for your hospitality.)

Just like we visit family members, so it is really beautiful
to see the family of God visiting each other – showing each other they care for
one another enough to take time out to see how they’re doing. Likewise we need
to give hospitality to each other when someone comes knocking – 1 Peter 4:9
tells us to “Show hospitality to one
another without grumbling.”

So, let’s do this!
Let’s be willing to be hospitable and pop the kettle on when somebody from
church (no matter which balloon) comes knocking on the door… And let’s be ready
to go out of our way to visit each other – after all, we’re family… Sorry about
that! ;)

This week we’re taking a look at one of the Monthly parts of
our St Paul’s Way: Serve Here.

The Bible is full of verses which tell us to serve the Lord and to serve
others. One of my favourite of these verses is from 1 Peter 4:10: Each of you should use whatever
gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in
its various forms.

I love the fact that God has made
each of us unique with unique gifts. That means that only Linda can lead in the
way she leads, only Gary can sing the way he sings, only Barbara can make a cup
of tea the way she does, only Eileen can make butties the way she does, only
Jeff can greet people the way he does… God wants us to use whatever we’ve got
to serve - no matter how small it may seem! If Jesus can take 5 loves and 2
fish and feed over 5000 people – he can use “little old me” to serve his
church.

There is so much going on in the life of St Paul’s
that you can get involved with not just within Sunday Services (welcoming
people, making tea and coffee, helping make sandwiches) but also through the
week at groups such as Long Loaf on a Wednesday afternoon who are always
extremely grateful of an extra pair of hands to chop some carrots or wash a pan
or two.

So, why not get involved? This is one of our monthly
ways but you can always serve more often if you like! Speak to Greg, myself or
any of the balloon leaders for more information about how you can start serving
here today!

St Paul’s
Tots is our new Parent and Toddler group running every Monday morning during
term time from 10.00-11.30. It’s a warm, welcoming place where parents/
grandparents/ carers can bring their little one along, grab a cup of
coffee and a piece of toast whilst their little ones can run ragged and play
till their hearts content!!!

It’s early days and we have only been running the group for 3 weeks, but it has
been so encouraging seeing lots of new faces and seeing people bring along new
friends each week. It is beautiful to see both parents and kids enjoying
themselves!

There are a variety of toys for babies and preschool children to enjoy, craft
activities, a simple Bible story and we round it all off with singing some
nursery rhymes and even doing the Hokey Cokey ( a family favourite!!!) So
if you have a little one or know of anyone who has then please come and join us
for just a £1 donation per family!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying and asking about how the group is
going. Please continue to pray that the group will be a place where people feel
welcomed, are able to have fun and that the group will be a way for
families to connect with the Church and most of all with Jesus.